Nerd-centric comedy "The Big Bang Theory" has secured its immediate future — or at least most of it.
"Big Bang" is consistently the top-rated comedy on television, often bringing in more than 20 million viewers. Even in syndication on TBS, repeats frequently better the ratings of first-run shows on major networks. The show finished its seventh season at its peak of popularity, but the cast's contracts ran out at the end of that season. New contracts were required, and as is standard practice on major hit shows when this happens, the show's cast members eyed this as an opportunity to get huge pay raises. The cast of "Friends" famously used an all-for-one approach to contract negotiations, where all six members of the cast always got equal pay, even after raises. "The Big Bang Theory" stars appear to have approached things with somewhat less unity.
Given the show's incredible popularity, its stars found themselves in a tremendous bargaining position with studio WBTV. Emmy winner Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco have negotiated together to reach new deals that hike their pay-per-episode from $325,000 up to somewhere in the vicinity of $1 million. The trio is also getting bigger backend deals. Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch had reached lucrative new deals previously, while Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar are still in negotiation mode. The Hollywood Reporter expects new deals to be announced for those two by the end of the week.
"Big Bang Theory" has been renewed for three additional seasons, guaranteeing it will reach at least 10 seasons. The negotiations for new deals began when the five main stars of the show refused to show up to begin work on Season 8 unless bigger, better contracts were signed. Showrunner Steve Molaro has a three-year deal of his own with WBTV, while creator Chuck Lorre has a contract with the studio as well.
Regarding the cast's negotiations, Lorre told The Hollywood Reporter, "There are people at Warner Brothers Television and people representing the actors who have done this before. This will work itself out. I think it's great; I want them all to be crazy wealthy because nobody deserves it more than this cast. It'll work out."
The show is nominated for Best Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards, where it has yet to win the honor. It will take a brief break from its Thursday night berth this fall, while CBS airs Thursday night NFL football, which it recently acquired the rights to. "The Big Bang Theory" will air instead on Monday nights for a few weeks while football games are still on.
